The History of~World War 2 (Part 6: The Axis Cornered)
As we left our last page (click here) that the Allies have slowly but surely turned the tide of this war in their favor on virtually every corner of the globe, in the Atlantic, the Pacific and even in North Africa. Now, wanting to capitalize on this success, the Allies are now the aggressors and want to corner the Axis. But this will not be easy, as the Axis still have some fight left in them. How they do it? This is what this page will try to cover. Operation Overlord In late 1943, The Allied Leaders (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin) meet in the Iranian capital of Tehran. There, they discuss "Operation Overlord", the Allied invasion of Nazi occupied Europe. They know the approach will not be easy, but the Allies do whatever they can to make sure that the Operation is a success. The Nazis have a very heavy coastal defense system, a 1,700 Mile-long defensive fortification consisting of heavy gun emplacements and garrisons that can have ranging from 3,000 to 100,000 men guarding the beachfronts. It is nicknamed "Hitler's Atlantic Wall" and it is believed by Hitler himself as "Impenetrable". The English Channel was also contaminated with thousands of sea mines that can put a huge hole in any ship fielded by the Allies. The Operation also had to rely on the Soviets on the Eastern Front to distract Nazi reinforcements. In order for Operation Overlord to even have a chance of being successful, there had to be absolutely no mistakes and no errors that would lead to it's projected failure. That is when the Allies turned to some of their own tactical geniuses: George S. Patton (The US General that led the Allies in North Africa) and Bertram Ramsay (A Colonel in the Royal Military). Ramsay was given the job to find, assess and erase any possible errors to the Operation. Patton was given the job to lead another Operation: "Fortitude". An act of deception by the Allies to trick Nazi reconnaissance into believing that the Allies will invade one place, in this case make the Nazis think that the Belgian city of Calais was the Landing Zone for the Allies. So he and other Allied Soldiers made up a fake base consisting of tanks, Planes, Hangars, Docks and anything else to fool the Nazi reconnaissance fly over this area to deceive them. One more piece to this difficult puzzle came in the form of preventing a Nazi counter-attack if any part of the defense system came under attack. On the night before the landings, the Allies have sent in Bombers to bomb crucial areas where the Nazis could counter-attack, they also sent in Paratroopers to deal with the situation on the ground. The Allies: The USA, Great Britain along with British Militias from Canada are now ready to invade Nazi Occupied Europe. They have 6 landing zones which each branch of the Allies will take, with a heavy gun battery at Pointe Du Hoc. On the Morning of June 6, 1944. Before the invasion could begin, the Allies sent aircraft that dropped metallic materials called Chaffe which blinded Nazi Radar Systems. Then the invasion begins. But even with all of the usual flaws looked at and dealt with, victory was still not guaranteed. The Nazi guards shot round after round as Allied Surgical Bombers flew overhead, but still the landing crafts came. But the *real* horror of the landings didn't actually come until the Allied soldiers landed on the beaches themselves (assuming that they survive the barrage of Nazi machine gun fire while on the landing crafts). As they did, the casualty rate skyrocketed. For the next 20 hours, the Allies kept sending invaders to the beachfronts. But miraculously, the Allies made a breakthrough. All 6 of the landing zones were now occupied by the Allies. Despite the casualties on the Allied side, the operation which was destined to fail, had in fact succeeded. Now, the Allies face the inevitability of waiting as they build Mulberry Harbors to bring in, personnel and supplies and even several underwater pipelines to bring in personnel and supplies which will be crucial for the Allied trek through Nazi occupied Europe. The Allies advanced through Nazi occupied France quite fast that by the end of the Summer all of France was liberated (with it's capital of Paris liberated by August). The Allies also make yet another breakthrough in Nazi occupied Belgium in Operation Market Garden. But the Allies made yet another breakthrough, not just in France or Belgium. They also helped King Emmanuel the 3rd's Royal Army fight against Benito Mousellini in a Civil War in Italy, and the Allies along with the Italian Royal Army invaded Rome on June 5 still in 1944. Island Hopping Campaign The Allies weren't just making breakthroughs in Europe. With the Japanese now having a smaller force, the USA were also going from one island claimed by Japan to the next. As the USA took Saipan in late 1944, this layed out a highway for them to invade the Philippines and re-take their colony from Japan. After taking the Philippines, the USA moved on to their Island Hopping campaign as they invade the island of Iwo Jima in February of 1945 as they had over 100,000 soldiers challenging Japan's 25,000. The battle was immediately horrific, especially the Japanese Soldier's suicidal fervor (which began in Saipan) and their dug in positions is what made the battle difficult for the USA. But after a month of fighting, Iwo Jima was under the US Flag, literally and metaphorically. The USA has suffered around 2,600 Casualties, compared to Japan's 23,000. Marking the first time since Pearl harbor where Japan's casualties were lower than the USA's. But the USA wasn't done yet. Because by April of 1945, the USA had invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa). This will be yet another horrific battle for either faction. The US landings were just as big as they were on D-Day. But as they venture through the Kingdom, the USA came under surprising guerilla warfare as Japanese Soldiers used Small arms as well as Katanas, sharpened spears made entirely of Bamboo, and even having small satchel charges as they ran towards an unsuspecting tank to destroy it. The battle wasn't just on land, it was at sea. Even before the Battle of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Japanese Pilots resorted to suicidal methods by using their own planes as missiles against US ships (known as the "Kamikaze": a name which was coined back during the time of Genghis Khan when he intended to Invade Japan after conquering China). After around 3 weeks of fighting, the Ryukyu Kingdom dissolves into US occupation. Major Casualties were seen on both sides, but as the USA captures the Ryukyu Kingdom, this sets the stage of what is yet to come. Now, the Axis are cornered, there is no way for them to come back and re-take the momentum they once had. The Allies will now end this bloody conflict, and they will do it in dramatic fashion. That is what the final chapter of this 7-part wiki page will cover. (click here) Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.